merkwürdigevsmerkwürdigerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“merkwürdige” and “merkwürdiger” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,538
“merkwürdige” frequency rank
#30,683
“merkwürdiger” frequency rank
43221
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merkwürdige merkwürdiger
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs merkwürdig

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set merkwürdige and merkwürdiger apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

11 ch
merkwürdige
12 ch
merkwürdiger

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. merkwürdige ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡə]) and merkwürdiger ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “merkwürdige” sits inside “merkwürdiger”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43221, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

merkwürdige is recorded at frequency rank #12,538, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡə]. merkwürdiger is at rank #30,683, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 43221, this pair ranks #1,424,934 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of merkwürdige vs merkwürdiger

Shared letters: degikmrwü. Private to "merkwürdige": -. Private to "merkwürdiger": -.

"merkwürdige" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCV  ·  "merkwürdiger" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "merkwürdige" and "merkwürdiger" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡə] versus [ˈmɛʁkˌvʏʁdɪɡɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "merkwürdige" or "merkwürdiger"?
"merkwürdige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,538 in our German list, against #30,683 for "merkwürdiger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list